Character based search and discovery of media content

ABSTRACT

Mechanisms are provided for character-based and image-based media content search and discovery. Character images or entity images are mapped to corresponding media content. Selection of an image or a portion of an image may trigger or search for corresponding media content or begin playback of relevant media content. Character images or entity images need not correspond to a primary program character or object but may correspond to minor characters or tangential entities depicted periodically on particular programs.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/457,906, filed Apr. 27, 2012 by John Hinman,titled “CHARACTER BASED SEARCH AND DISCOVERY OF MEDIA CONTENT”, which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety and for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to character-based search and discoveryof media content.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

A variety of conventional mechanisms allow for media discovery.Different text-based and image-based program guides allow navigation toparticular programs and shows. For instance, a user can enter textsearch string to identify content having descriptions corresponding tothe text search string. Snapshots of video clips may be presented on apage to the user along with title and content descriptions. Numerousmechanisms allow for search and discovery of media content.

However, many media discovery mechanisms remain heavily text-focused.Consequently, techniques are provided to improve search and discovery ofmedia content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whichillustrate particular embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system that can use the techniquesand mechanisms of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a character-based media search anddiscovery screen.

FIG. 3 illustrates one example of a technique for generating informationfor character- and entity-based media discovery.

FIG. 4 illustrates one example of a technique for performing character-and entity-based media content discovery.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example of a computer system.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to some specific examples of theinvention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors forcarrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments areillustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention isdescribed in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will beunderstood that it is not intended to limit the invention to thedescribed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to coveralternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included withinthe spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

For example, the techniques of the present invention will be describedin the context of particular operations and types of content. However,it should be noted that the techniques of the present invention apply toa variety of operations and types of content. In the followingdescription, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the present invention. Particular exampleembodiments of the present invention may be implemented without some orall of these specific details. In other instances, well known processoperations have not been described in detail in order not tounnecessarily obscure the present invention.

Various techniques and mechanisms of the present invention willsometimes be described in singular form for clarity. However, it shouldbe noted that some embodiments include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. For example, a system uses a processor in a variety ofcontexts. However, it will be appreciated that a system can use multipleprocessors while remaining within the scope of the present inventionunless otherwise noted. Furthermore, the techniques and mechanisms ofthe present invention will sometimes describe a connection between twoentities. It should be noted that a connection between two entities doesnot necessarily mean a direct, unimpeded connection, as a variety ofother entities may reside between the two entities. For example, aprocessor may be connected to memory, but it will be appreciated that avariety of bridges and controllers may reside between the processor andmemory. Consequently, a connection does not necessarily mean a direct,unimpeded connection unless otherwise noted.

Overview

Mechanisms are provided for character-based and image-based mediacontent search and discovery. Character images or entity images aremapped to corresponding media content. Selection of an image or aportion of an image may trigger a search for corresponding media contentor begin playback of relevant media content. Character images or entityimages need not correspond to a primary program character or object butmay correspond to minor characters or tangential entities depictedperiodically on particular programs.

Example Embodiments

Conventional media search and discovery mechanisms are text-focused.Information is typically provided at the channel, show, and episodelevel with title, content description, and possibly show snapshotspresented to a user often in grid type formats. A user navigates to aparticular channel, show, and episode and select the episode to beginplayback of that episode. In some instances, video clips are providedwith show snapshots, title, and content description and playback beginswith selection of the title or snapshot.

However, mechanisms for performing character- or entity-based searchesare limited. For example, if a viewer wants to navigate to videosportraying the character Swiper the Fox, the viewer may navigate to timeslots and select particular episodes of Dora the Explorer™. Theseepisodes of Dora the Explorer™ may or may not feature Swiper the Fox.The user would then have to browse through a selection of show titles,if available, to guess which shows might feature Swiper the Fox. In someinstances, there may be websites that feature Swiper the Fox and fansmay have indicated where Swiper the Fox was prominently featured.However, out-of-band search still does not allow easy access to shows,clips, or segments featuring Swiper the Fox.

Consequently, the techniques and mechanisms of the present inventionidentify programs, movies, clips, and segments featuring a particularcharacter or entity. In some examples, segments may be portions of ashow or program. In particular embodiments, the segments are manuallyidentified, delineated, and tagged. In other instances, the segments areidentified automatically by using image recognition or voice recognitionalgorithms to identify particular characters or entities. In still otherexamples, web content is scanned or crawled to identify segments thatfeature particular characters or entities.

According to various embodiments, a viewer may wish to find segmentsfeaturing the pyramids. There may be some media content explicitlyfeaturing pyramids in the title or content description. However, theremay be numerous other segments featuring pyramids that may not readilybe identifiable. Consequently, when a user selects an image of apyramid, the techniques and mechanisms of the present invention provideprograms, movies, shows, clips, advertisements, and media segments thatdepict pyramids. Media segments may be mere 5 second segments or run farlonger.

In some examples, various images that include multiple characters andentities may be presented to a viewer to allow a viewer to select acharacter or entity. The selection of the character or entity canimmediately playback media featuring the character or entity or triggera search for media content featuring the character or entity. The searchresults may be automatically played for the user after display of theresults for a predetermined period of time.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation illustrating one example of asystem that can use the techniques and mechanisms of the presentinvention. According to various embodiments, content servers 119, 121,123, and 125 are configured to provide media content to a mobile device101. In some examples, media content may be provided using protocolssuch as HTTP, RTP, and RTCP. Although a mobile device 101 is shown, itshould be recognized that other devices such as set top boxes andcomputer systems can also be used. In particular examples, the contentservers 119, 121, 123, and 125 can themselves establish sessions withmobile devices and stream video and audio content to mobile devices.However, it is recognized that in many instances, a separate controllersuch as controller 105 or controller 107 can be used to perform sessionmanagement using a protocol such as RTSP. It is recognized that contentservers require the bulk of the processing power and resources used toprovide media content to mobile devices. Session management itself mayinclude far fewer transactions. Consequently, a controller can handle afar larger number of mobile devices than a content server can. In someexamples, a content server can operate simultaneously with thousands ofmobile devices, while a controller performing session management canmanage millions of mobile devices simultaneously.

By separating out content streaming and session management functions, acontroller can select a content server geographically close to a mobiledevice 101. It is also easier to scale, as content servers andcontrollers can simply be added as needed without disrupting systemoperation. A load balancer 103 can provide further efficiency duringsession management by selecting a controller with low latency and highthroughput.

According to various embodiments, the content servers 119, 121, 123, and125 have access to a campaign server 143. The campaign server 143provides profile information for various mobile devices 101. In someexamples, the campaign server 143 is itself a content server or acontroller. The campaign server 143 can receive information fromexternal sources about devices such as mobile device 101. Theinformation can be profile information associated with various users ofthe mobile device including interests and background. The campaignserver 143 can also monitor the activity of various devices to gatherinformation about the devices. The content servers 119, 121, 123, and125 can obtain information about the various devices from the campaignserver 143. In particular examples, a content server 125 uses thecampaign server 143 to determine what type of media clips a user on amobile device 101 would be interested in viewing.

According to various embodiments, the content servers 119, 121, 123, and125 can also receive media streams from content providers such assatellite providers or cable providers and send the streams to devices.In particular examples, content servers 119, 121, 123, and 125 accessdatabase 141 to obtain desired content that can be used to supplementstreams from satellite and cable providers. In one example, a mobiledevice 101 requests a particular stream. A controller 107 establishes asession with the mobile device 101 and the content server 125 beginsstreaming the content to the mobile device 101. In particular examples,the content server 125 obtains profile information from campaign server143.

In some examples, the content server 125 can also obtain profileinformation from other sources, such as from the mobile device 101itself. Using the profile information, the content server can select aclip from a database 141 to provide to a user. In some instances, theclip is injected into a live stream without affecting mobile deviceapplication performance. In other instances, the live stream itself isreplaced with another live stream. The content server handles processingto make the transition between streams and clips seamless from the pointof view of a mobile device application. In still other examples,advertisements from a database 141 can be intelligently selected from adatabase 141 using profile information from a campaign server 143 andused to seamlessly replace default advertisements in a live stream.Content servers 119, 121, 123, and 125 have the capability to manipulatepackets to allow introduction and removal of media content, tracks,metadata, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a search and discovery screen.According to various embodiments, the search and discovery screen 201includes a plurality of character images 211, 213, 215, 217, 219, and221. Selection of a character image 211, 213, 215, 217, 219, or 221 cantrigger immediate playback of a media segment depicting a correspondingcharacter, trigger a search for relevant media content, trigger delayedplayback of media content after search results are shown, etc. Inparticular embodiments, a background image 231 includes selectablecharacters and entities 241, 243, 245, 247, 249, and 251. Selection of acharacter or entity image 241, 243, 245, 247, 249, and 251 can triggerimmediate playback of a media segment depicting a correspondingcharacter or entity, trigger a search for relevant media content,trigger delayed playback of media content after search results areshown, etc. It should be noted that although a particular configurationof character images and entity images is shown, a variety ofconfigurations are possible. In some examples, only character images oronly entity images may be displayed. In other examples, a combination ofcharacter images and entity images may be selectable in a dynamicallyvarying sequence. In some examples, character images and entity imagesmay be selectable in a video.

According to various embodiments, character images and background imagesmay change automatically over time or may change after user interaction.In particular embodiments, a viewer may click a button or a wheel torotate character images on and off of a display. A variety of characterimages and entity images may be shown. In some examples, only abackground image may be shown. In other examples, multiple images eachwith multiple characters and entities may be displayed on a single page.In some examples, selectable images and entities may be highlightedduring navigation to show selectability.

In some examples, viewers may be able to select multiple images toidentify clips featuring both of those characters or entities. Forexample, a viewer may select an image of an actor and a particularvehicle, to identify segments featuring the actor and that vehicle. Inother examples, a viewer may select images of two cartoon characters toidentify segments featuring both of those cartoon characters.

FIG. 3 illustrates one example of a technique for identifying mediasegments. According to various embodiments, a character based mediasearch and discovery system identifies multiple characters and entitiesat 301. The characters may be actors, actresses, cartoon characters,puppets, fictional characters, computer animated individuals, etc. Theentities may be objects, places, things, as well as types of scenes suchas action sequences, romantic scenes, etc. According to variousembodiments, media content from a source such as a media content libraryis scanned at 303. The scan may be performed manually or by using imagerecognition and voice recognition algorithms to identify particularcharacters and entities. In some examples, image recognition isperformed at 305 and voice recognition is performed at 307 to identifycharacters and entities.

According to various embodiments, media segments are delineated, tagged,and/or linked to corresponding character images and entity images at309. In some instances, media segments may be delineated by specifyingstart points and end points. Tags may include character names, entitynames, and likelihood of relevance. In some instances, segments may havetags associated with multiple characters and entities. At 311, mediasegments are ordered based on relevance. A selection of a particularcharacter image may begin playback of a media segment having the highestrelevance. In other examples, selection of a particular character orentity image may present a listing of media segments having the highestrelevance.

FIG. 4 illustrates a particular example of a technique for performingcharacter-based and entity-based media search and discovery. Accordingto various embodiments, one or more character and/or entity images arepresented to a viewer at 401. In particular embodiments, a viewerselection of one or more character and/or entity images is received at403. At 405, media segments corresponding to the selected images areidentified. The media segments may be portions of a program, and entiremovie, a video clip, etc. At 407, media segments having the highestrelevance are returned to the viewer. In some examples, playback of thesegment with the highest relevance begins immediately at 409. In otherexamples, media segment options are presented to the viewer in order ofrelevance at 411.

According to various embodiments, a media segment request is receivedfrom the viewer at 413 and the media segment is streamed to the viewerat 415. According to various embodiments, the duration the viewerwatches the media segment is monitored to determine how relevant themedia segment was to the user at 417. If the viewer watches a highpercentage of the media segment or watches for an extended period oftime, the media segment relevance score for the corresponding characteror entity image is increased at 419. If the viewer watches a lowpercentage of the media segment or watches for a limited period of time,the media segment relevance score may be decreased at 421.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example of a server. According to particularembodiments, a system 500 suitable for implementing particularembodiments of the present invention includes a processor 501, a memory503, an interface 511, and a bus 515 (e.g., a PCI bus or otherinterconnection fabric) and operates as a streaming server. When actingunder the control of appropriate software or firmware, the processor 501is responsible for modifying and transmitting media content to a client.Various specially configured devices can also be used in place of aprocessor 501 or in addition to processor 501. The interface 511 istypically configured to send and receive data packets or data segmentsover a network.

Particular examples of interfaces supported include Ethernet interfaces,frame relay interfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ringinterfaces, and the like. In addition, various very high-speedinterfaces may be provided such as fast Ethernet interfaces, GigabitEthernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSI interfaces, POS interfaces,FDDI interfaces and the like. Generally, these interfaces may includeports appropriate for communication with the appropriate media. In somecases, they may also include an independent processor and, in someinstances, volatile RAM. The independent processors may controlcommunications-intensive tasks such as packet switching, media controland management.

According to various embodiments, the system 500 is a content serverthat also includes a transceiver, streaming buffers, and a program guidedatabase. The content server may also be associated with subscriptionmanagement, logging and report generation, and monitoring capabilities.In particular embodiments, the content server can be associated withfunctionality for allowing operation with mobile devices such ascellular phones operating in a particular cellular network and providingsubscription management capabilities. According to various embodiments,an authentication module verifies the identity of devices includingmobile devices. A logging and report generation module tracks mobiledevice requests and associated responses. A monitor system allows anadministrator to view usage patterns and system availability. Accordingto various embodiments, the content server handles requests andresponses for media content-related transactions while a separatestreaming server provides the actual media streams.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications may be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. Therefore, the present embodiments are to be consideredas illustrative and not restrictive and the invention is not to belimited to the details given herein, but may be modified within thescope and equivalents of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: presenting a plurality ofcharacter images simultaneously on a display; receiving, from a viewer,a viewer selection of a first character image from the plurality ofcharacter images; identifying, in response to the viewer selection, aplurality of media segments, including a first media segment, whereinthe plurality of media segments are delineated, tagged, and linked tocorresponding character images in the plurality of character images;selecting the first media segment, from the plurality of media segments,for playback in response to receiving the viewer selection of the firstcharacter image, the first media segment having the highest relevancewith the first character image based on a relevance score, the relevancescore indicating how much the first media segment corresponds to thefirst character image and is calculated, for each of the plurality ofmedia segments, based on a percentage of each of the media segments thatthe viewer has watched and/or a time amount that the viewer has watchedfor each of the media segments; beginning playback of the first mediasegment on the display upon selecting the first media segment; andincreasing the relevance score based on an indication that the firstmedia segment has a higher amount correspondence to the first characterimage than indicated by the relevance score.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein a plurality of entity images are presented with the plurality ofcharacter images simultaneously.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein theviewer selection is of the first character image and a second characterimage.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first media segment has thehighest relevance, based on the relevance score, with both the firstcharacter image and the second character image.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the viewer selection is of the first character image and afirst entity image.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first mediasegment has the highest relevance, based on the relevance score, withboth the first character image and the first entity image.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the media segment is a portion of a media program.8. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment is a full mediaprogram.
 9. A system comprising: a processor; and memory storinginstructions to execute a method, the method comprising: presenting aplurality of character images simultaneously on a display; receiving,from a viewer, a viewer selection of a first character image from theplurality of character images; identifying, in response to the viewerselection, a plurality of media segments, including a first mediasegment, wherein the plurality of media segments are delineated, tagged,and linked to corresponding character images in the plurality ofcharacter images; selecting the first media segment, from the pluralityof media segments, for playback in response to receiving the viewerselection of the first character image, the first media segment havingthe highest relevance with the first character image based on arelevance score, the relevance score indicating how much the first mediasegment corresponds to the first character image and is calculated, foreach of the plurality of media segments, based on a percentage of eachof the media segments that the viewer has watched and/or a time amountthat the viewer has watched for each of the media segments; beginningplayback of the first media segment on the display upon selecting thefirst media segment; and increasing the relevance score based on anindication that the first media segment has a higher amountcorrespondence to the first character image than indicated by therelevance score.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein a plurality ofentity images are presented with the plurality of character imagessimultaneously.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the viewer selectionis of the first character image and a second character image.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the first media segment has the highestrelevance, based on the relevance score, with both the first characterimage and the second character image.
 13. The system of claim 9, whereinthe viewer selection is of the first character image and a first entityimage.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first media segment hasthe highest relevance, based on the relevance score, with both the firstcharacter image and the first entity image.
 15. The system of claim 9,wherein the media segment is a portion of a media program.
 16. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the media segment is a full media program.17. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructionsfor: presenting a plurality of character images simultaneously on adisplay; receiving, from a viewer, a viewer selection of a firstcharacter image from the plurality of character images; identifying, inresponse to the viewer selection, a plurality of media segments,including a first media segment, wherein the plurality of media segmentsare delineated, tagged, and linked to corresponding character images inthe plurality of character images; selecting the first media segment,from the plurality of media segments, for playback in response toreceiving the viewer selection of the first character image, the firstmedia segment having the highest relevance with the first characterimage based on a relevance score, the relevance score indicating howmuch the first media segment corresponds to the first character imageand is calculated, for each of the plurality of media segments, based ona percentage of each of the media segments that the viewer has watchedand/or a time amount that the viewer has watched for each of the mediasegments; beginning playback of the first media segment on the displayupon selecting the first media segment; and increasing the relevancescore based on an indication that the first media segment has a higheramount correspondence to the first character image than indicated by therelevance score.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium ofclaim 17, wherein a plurality of entity images are presented with theplurality of character images simultaneously.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the viewer selection is ofthe first character image and a second character image.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the firstmedia segment has the highest relevance, based on the relevance score,with both the first character image and the second character image.